


pick up what you can and run

by putsch



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gun Violence, Hallucinations, Mad Max: Fury Road AU, Minor Character Death, Multi, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 16:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5709937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/putsch/pseuds/putsch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All they were looking for is freedom, and maybe some kind of redemption.</p><p>(SWAG prompt: Haikyuu Mad Max: Fury Road AU, with Daichi, Asahi, and Suga as Furiousa, Max, and Angharad)</p>
            </blockquote>





	pick up what you can and run

He has been on the road for so long he thinks it's a miracle he remembers his own name. Not that names in this endless wasteland matter. All that matters is surviving, of making it to the next day, of keeping his car fueled so he can make it to the next town and survive. Life has little else to offer these days, yet he keeps doing it all the same.

He hears something skitter in the wasteland beside his feet, and catches it underneath his heel, keeping it still until he bends down to pick it up. A snake. He cuts the head off with his bowie knife and flings it off into the rocks. It's brutal, but there's nothing else he can do.

Asahi knows he to keep his energy up to run. The ghosts won't let him do anything else.

 

\---

 

She cuts off all her hair, she mutilates her own arm, she keeps herself impassive as the war boys drain her mother's corpse for fresh blood, she drives and she drives and she drives. Whatever it takes to keep away starving eyes and enemies so she can have her chance.

Daichi knows when it comes, she has to be ready to take it, or she will never see it again.

 

\---

 

Some days, she feels like nothing, simply going through the motions in order to go from morning to night. Some days she stares out the window and wonders what it'd be like to jump. But most days, she reads. The elder one taught her when she began picking up the books, began telling her soft stories when there were moments of quiet between ever harrowing visits.

The elder one felt like the only one it was safe to get close to when other girls would start to disappear.

Koushi knew this wasn't a life she could keep living, or she'd stop wanting to live at all.

 

\---

 

"You're being given a rare privilege, you know, seeing the Immorton's treasures."

The captain's voice dripped with something that curdled Daichi's stomach. "Just let me see them."

He laughed as he opened the metal door, letting her in, and locking it behind her. Daichi took a deep breath as she stepped inside, and stared at the young woman could not trick fate quite like she was able to.

"Are you the new bodyguard?" The smallest one asked, tipping her head in a way that dropped orange waves over her eyes.

Daichi bowed, just enough to be respectful. "I am."

The girls hummed, and went back to their things, almost uncaring of the new woman standing in their room. It was just another day, another order for them, just like it was for Daichi.

 

\---

 

Koushi looked at her metal arm and the dust on her skin, and started to make a plan.

 

\---

 

Never in all her years, did Daichi think her chance would come in such a delicate frame with wispy silver hair and burning brown eyes.

"You don't have to do this." Koushi says, her lips pressed together in desperation. "There is nothing I can offer you. But please. Me and my sisters have no one else to help us."

"Don't worry." Daichi says, cupping her soft cheek in her only flesh hand. "I'll do it."

Koushi searches her face with darting eyes, like she doesn't believe her for a second. "Really?"

She nods.

Not even the sun could outshine Koushi's grin.

 

\---

 

Here we go again, he thinks to himself.

Asahi jumps into his car and slams on the ignition, the sudden noise of dirt bikes and howling boys filling the otherwise silent desert air. He had been so careful this time too, following the wind that would blow away his tracks, avoiding fire to keep his position silent. It had been working for weeks - no, months? Days? What does it matter.

The only thing that matters is taking the dangerous switchbacks, hoping that they won't be able to catch him on the downhill of the slope, but he didn't realize that these new bikes have been given some excellent alterations, and one of them ends up crashing through his back window. Glass shatters forward into the dashboard, reflecting the sun back at him.

When Asahi tries to sweep it away, he sees a reflection of a boy he knew ages ago, whispering back up at him.

_Watch your back Asahi._

He jolts and thrusts his elbow back into a war boy's nose.

The car can't run with the new attachment, not fast enough at least, but Asahi tries, dounuts through the sand to blow the others away, but this time it's not enough.

The next time he wakes up, most of his hair and his beard are gone, his limbs chained, and there are war boys everywhere.

Well, fuck.

 

\---

 

Things can't always be perfect, but chance is what it is and Daichi knows there's no point in fighting it anymore. There's only moving forward.

So she puts on her war grease, she heads down the platform, head held high, and gets into the war rig.

She does not check on the girls. She knows they will be fine.

 

\---

 

It was only a matter of time before his luck ran out, but Asahi didn't think it would slap him in the face so cruelly as to leave him chained to a war boy's car, as it followed the rig right into a fucking sandstorm.

Stupid stupid _stupid._

 

\---

 

The chains are free when Asahi comes to, which would be more of a blessing if he wasn't stuck in the middle of no where. Also, he's hallucinating the sound of water, which is definitely a new one, but no less cruel than any of the others.

He gets up, first inspecting the car. It looks dead, just like the war boy inside. Lovely. At least he can take the gun, and have something to protect him.

With nothing else to go on, he follows the water sounds and hopes for the best.

 

\---

 

It's Koushi who spots him first, squinting into the distance as she closes the clippers on the metal chastity belt at Tobio's waist.

"Who is that?"

Daichi glances over her shoulder from her spot on the rig, and sees the stranger. He's close already, in his strange clothes and his hair shows he's definitely no war boy. She's not sure if that's a good thing or not.

"All of you, stay here."

They do, thankfully, although Shouyo and Tobio look ready to investigate ahead of her, while Tadashi and Kei stay back with the hose. Daichi steps forward to the end of the rig, about to speak when the stranger sticks a gun in her face.

"Water. Keys." The stranger's voice is low, raspy, and his eyes are nothing but fear. "Now!"

Daichi nods, slowly, stepping back. The stranger takes the hose from Tadashi, pouring water of his face while still holding the gun.

Good enough distraction as any. Daichi grabs the stranger's wrist and punches him in the mouth, shoving him into the dirt. The stranger groans from the impact of a metal left hook to the jaw, but is still awake enough to knee her in the ribs. She coughs, stumbling, and the stranger throws up the gun and pulls the trigger, only for it to click uselessly. He stares at it, terrified, giving Daichi her shot to tackle him into the ground and wrangle the gun away from him. It might not shoot, but a good pistol whipping can knock out anyone.

"Who are you?" She screams, trying to get answers before she beats him to death in front of the others, "Why have you followed us?!"

The man answers by biting her wrist, and knocking her aside to run for the rig.

He doesn't make it very far before Koushi slams the clippers into his crotch, causing him only to stumble, not enough to make him stop running for the rig. Suddenly Daichi is a lot more worried than she was five seconds ago.

"Wait!" She coughs, pushing herself back up to her feet. "Let him take it."

The girls look back at her confused, hurt, and she shakes her head. "If the rig is all you want, go."

The stranger looks at her long and hard, and gets inside the rig to start it up.

"Daichi, what the hell, he's going to take it and leave us here for dead!" Koushi yells as Daichi walks through the group.

"No he's not." She says, leading them the whole five yards before the roaring rig comes back to a stop.

 

\---

 

Asahi looks thrilled about being in a war rig with six women he's never met before. No, really. So enthused.

"Where are we going?" he asks, hands curling and uncurling, ready for flight or fight in equal measure.

"East." says Koushi, and Daichi starts the rigs engine once again.

 

\---

 

The stranger turns out to be a surprisingly good driver, and by Daichi's standards that's saying something.

"Sorry about your face" she tells him.

He just shrugs.

"What's your name?"

"...Doesn't matter."

 

\---

 

By the time they make it to the canyon, it's nightfall. It's later than Daichi expected, but probably for the best - she knows how to drive through it and to have the rocks brought down now will attract the others from the noise, but they'll be long gone before they can do anything about that.

Koushi curls up by her side, sitting awkwardly on the middle panel with the gear stick and her newly bulging gut. The stranger is asleep beside them, or at least finally has his eyes closed. It's enough.

"Is this going to be alright?" Koushi whispers, not wanting to wake the others.

"It is what it is. We just have to make the best of it."

 

\---

 

Getting through the canyon is not as easy as Daichi made it out to be.

The trade off doesn't happen at all, the whole thing turns out to be a trap in waiting. Koushi nearly has three separate heart attacks as the canyon gang trying to capture them for a bounty back to the Immorton instead of helping them, watches Tobio shoot a man square between the eyes like a natural, has to talk Tadashi down from a panic attack while Kei is busy on look out, and has to hold Shouyo before she gets ripped out of the car by some bastard that the stranger stabs in the neck.

If only she could do more, she thinks, but when Daichi turns around and commands at her to take the wheel as she steps out to fight, Koushi knows she's already doing more than she ever imagined.

It's right about then that a bullet tears into her stomach, and the last thing Koushi hears is her little sisters screaming.

 

\---

 

When everything is over, they cannot stop driving.

 

\---

 

"Well!?" Shouyo screams, hands fisted in the stranger's jacket and shaking him with a force he knew, deep down, small hands could carry.

"I did what I could."

Asahi's hands are dripping blood, still holding the finished roll of bandage tape.

Daichi says nothing.

 

\---

 

When Asahi closes his eyes, head pressed against the rig's glass, his hallucinations greet him with that same boy. He stares with wide, sleepless eyes. Says nothing this time, only stares.

Asahi wishes he'd start screaming again.

 

\---

 

Kei throws the seat out the window and the girls sit on the metal floor with Koushi in their laps.

 

\---

 

"Tell me what you really think." Daichi says, staring forward, sunset light streaming behind her.

Asahi is quiet as he regards the request. Looks back at the others to make sure they aren't listening before he says anything.

"She either wakes up soon or she never wakes up again. The baby though--"

"That's good enough."

 

\---

 

They've stopped for a break to let the sisters readjust in the back, Daichi and Asahi outside to make sure everything is in order.

"Do you want a different shirt?" Daichi asks, offhand as she kicks the extra sand off the exhaust.

Asahi looks down, inspecting it. He's used to wearing the same things for far longer than this, but normally his clothes don't get caked in blood. Especially not a comrade's blood.

(Not since another time.)

He shrugs. "Do you have one?"

"Yeah." Daichi tosses him the rag in her hand, which actually is a shirt. It's covered in dirt, but dirt is better than blood. It looks like it'll fit. "We can use that thing as our new rag."

Decency is long gone these days, so Asahi shucks off his jacket, his blood soaked shirt, revealing the muscles of his curvy waist, and what are most definitely breasts. Daichi stares at the revealed skin, shocked, and remembers how ineffective Koushi's blow to the crotch was during their first fight. It makes a lot more sense now.

Asahi looks back at her with hardened eyes, like he's just waiting for Daichi to say something. Daring, almost.

Daichi knows there's nothing to say. She nods, understanding.

They both know what it takes to survive.

 

\---

 

There are a lot of things one hears about death in a world like this. Some want to believe there is a higher plane, their Vahalla, a world beyond this where things are better and brighter, where they don't have to suffer anymore. Others believe there is simply nothingness, and that whatever you do is between you and the sands of time.

Koushi never knew what to believe, but when the ground feels so soft and something smells oddly like gunpowder and cinnamon, she can take this as a place beyond. It's not so bad. Just dark.

And loud. Like an engine.

Wait.

She groans, rubbing her eyes to realize that yes, it is dark, but not some eternal blackness. It's just nighttime. That she's still in the rig. She shifts, trying to ignore the searing pain to look at the seats ahead of her.

"Daichi...?" her voice isn't all there, so she hopes it's loud enough.

The figure in the driver's seat nearly hits the ceiling as they jump, whipping around with those wild eyes. Oh. Definitely not Daichi.

Yet oddly, the eyes relax. They show something human in them that Koushi's never seen in that tone of brown.

"Asahi."

Koushi smiles. "What a nice name."

Asahi looks away, and wonders why his face feels so hot when it's nighttime.

 

\---

 

Daichi can't remember what it's like to cry, but she definitely gets close when she sees the others openly wailing over their awoken sister.

 

\---

 

The girls look at her differently from then on, not out of kindness, but something else Asahi has long forgotten the name of, left it behind when he began to travel alone. He sees traces of it from Daichi too. Part of Asahi wishes he had the name for it, for why it makes him feel like a human being again instead of just another animal roaming nothing but salt and sand.

The rest of Asahi knows that names don't matter.

 

\---

 

It's hard to walk with her injury, but Koushi manages it the next night when they stop to make camp to find Asahi hiding by his lonesome on the far side of the rig.

"May I?" she asks, patting the seat by his side.

He looks wary for a moment, but nods. It's an odd sort of trust.

"I heard you were the one who managed to patch me up. I wanted to thank you."

Asahi grunts, shaking his head. "No need."

"Have the others thanked you enough already in my place then?"

She swears, that for only a second, Asahi smiles. "Something like that."

Koushi laughs, and keeps looking at Asahi, at the way he fidgets. Like there's something else he wants to ask. So she waits, quietly, wanting to answer anything he has to ask. He deserves that much.

"...Sorry about, uh, the kid."

"Don't be." Koushi says, resting her arm over her stomach. "It's probably for the best."

The confusion is clear on Asahi's face, urging her to continue. Koushi sighs, and wonders if there's a good way to explain such a thing. "I think I only kept it to protect myself. Just in case he came back." The smile doesn't go up to her eyes. "He won't hurt you if you have one of his, you know?"

Asahi nods, and feels pretty sure he knows what she means.

 

\---

 

They keep driving east, hoping for better land. For a home Daichi swears, somewhere, is there.

Koushi trusts her with it.

Asahi wonders when he started trusting it too.

 

\---

 

After years of dreaming, months of planning, and days of driving, Daichi finally knows they're close. The woman who descended from the watch is familiar, like a long lost friend. Daichi can practically see home now.

"How far further east is it to the Green Place?" She asks, hopeful and younger than she's felt in ages.

But the women before them are all suddenly silent, and Daichi feels her last vestiges of hope slip.

"It's gone." Kuroo tells them. "All of it was ravaged years ago, and we've been moving ever since."

 

\---

 

It's the dead of night before they find Daichi hiding in the crow's nest atop the rig. They sit on either side of her, and Daichi buries her face between her knees.

"I'm so sorry." she whispers, voice still hoarse.

"Don't be." Koushi replies, rubbing her hand over Daichi's back.

"But what do we do now? I've let you all down, telling you of this beautiful place that's been destroyed just like everything else."

Koushi winces, because she doesn't have an answer to that question. She had been so good with all her other plans, and yet she failed to overlook the most important flaw. "I'm sure we can think of something."

"Like what?" Daichi spits out, looking up at Koushi.

"Maybe there's something else further east? Or to the north?"

"Maybe... especially if we travel with the others, it'd be easier." Daichi runs her hand through her hair, looking up at the stars. There's so much unexplored land after all, there might be more green places that not even the Immortan knows about, or at least a town they could all be safe in.

"No."

Both Daichi and Koushi stare at Asahi, watching his jaw set with conviction. "We go back."

"Back...?" Koushi murmurs, like she can't piece together what Asahi possibly means.

He nods. "There's water, fuel. Green. The citadel has it."

"And Immortan who wants us all dead. Great plan." Daichi deadpans.

Asahi shakes his head. "Not if we make it through the canyon. Close it off. Kill him, maybe."

"You're serious."

He nods.

Daichi blinks, but she gets the reasoning. The Citadel has everything to restart the Green Place, even if it is by far the biggest risk. Going any other way would be easier, for her, for the girls. For Koushi. Maybe even for Asahi, if he wanted to stay.

But nothing they've done so far has been easy. Starting now almost seems comical. She turns to Koushi, still looking caught in the headlights.

"It's your call, Koushi."

Koushi looks over at Asahi, at Daichi, looking back and forth as the scales in her head weigh the pros and cons, the risks, the sweet, sweet, rewards.

She takes both of their hands in her own and squeezes them tight. "We'll leave at first light."

 

\---

 

Daichi looks at Asahi as he drives them back toward the canyon. Remembers how he appeared out of the dust, and knows he could disappear into the dust too.

"Are you going to stay with us at the Citadel?"

Asahi looks at her, surprise evident on his worn features. Like no one has ever asked him to stay.

"You should." Koushi whispers, not looking up from her gun.

 

\---

 

Koushi witnesses so much death there in the canyon.

She understands why Daichi and Asahi sleep so little now.

 

\---

 

Go back to the Citadel, he said. It will be the best path for all of them, to find what they need, to make things right again, he told them.

"I am an idiot." Asahi grumbles, clinging for dear life on a swinging pole.

 

\---

 

Daichi pulls the knife out from her side with a scream. It hurts, hurts to the point where all she wants is to lay down and let the darkness take her.

When she looks up, she sees Tadashi reaching for her, pressing her hand on the wound, normally stoic features shaking.

No. She can't die yet.

 

\---

 

They hold each other up at the gates of the Citadel, unable to stand alone from the injuries. But now they are heroes, standing over the fallen corpse of an unwanted tyrant, and the crowd cheers for the start of something new, to something built they can build, arm in arm.

For once, the three of them feel like they have finally moved forward and onto steady ground.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> i've always wanted to write a mad max au and mad max asadaisuga?? god bless man
> 
> i hope everyone likes it as much as i liked writing it


End file.
